New York

Introduction I’m doing my paper about New York, one of the biggest cities of America and the whole world. I’ve been there three years ago; the city attracted me very much. You can see a lot of things there, we have made many pictures and they’re incorporated in this paper. It was very difficult to find the right information. A lot of books were too big and at tourist office’s they have only guidebooks, with only a lot of information about restaurants, hotels etc. But I managed it to make this paper with little information. My first step was to make the whole paper in Dutch, and then I’ve translated it into English. But that was much more difficult than I thought it would be. I hope that you like it, to read about New York. And that you have a good image of New York, after reading this paper.

The City in general New York is one of the oldest and biggest cities of North America. It’s located at the mouth of the Hudson River. The city has about 9 million inhabitants; this is almost as much as in whole Belgium. The city is divided in 5 parts: The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island. The city has a surface area of 782 km², New York has 10.300 km street, 1050 km subway, 930 km wharf, 10585 ha park, 200 skyscrapers and about 18.6 cm rain and 11.53 cm snow comes down every year. There are many different nationalities in New York. Some races are concentrated in specific parts of the city. The most famous are: Harlem (black people), China town (Chinese people), Little Italy (Italian people) and Spanish Harem (Puerto Ricans). At this moment, 9 million people speak about 80 different languages; most of them are speaking deformed English.

The History New York was discovered almost 500 years ago, by Giovanni da Verrazano, before that, Indians occupied it. In 1614 Adriaen Block called the area ‘New Netherlands’. In 1625 the West-Indian Company found ‘New Amsterdam’. In 1664 the English men conquered the ‘Wall streets’ wall and called the island ‘New York’ to the brother of Karel II, the count of York. The pact of Paris gave the English in 1763 government over 13 American colonies. There’s a war from 1770 until 1783 about the independence of New York. In 1783 the pact of Paris made an end to the war. New York becomes the capitol of America in 1785. Albany becomes the capitol of the state of New York 13 years later. Slavery is abolished in New York in 1848. The statue of Liberty (a gift from France) is unveiled in 1886. Women get their rights to vote in 1920. Wall Street crashed in 1929, which caused a lot of unemployment. The construction of the Chrysler building, the highest building of the world, was started in 1930. The Empire State Building’s construction, then the highest building in the world, was started in 1931.The building of the World Trade Centre, still the highest building of New York, was started in 1973. John Lennon (of The Beatles) was murdered in front of the Dakota hotel in 1980. The New York stock exchange crashed in 1987. David Dinkins, the first Afro-American mayor of New York is appointed in 1990. A terrorist bomb damages the World Trade Centre in 1993. The population of New York grew from 80.000 up to 3 million people between 1800 and 1900. The population grew on and from 1900 until now it has grown from 3 million up to 9 million. The city has developed itself through the years to be the centre of America.

The Statue of Liberty Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi developed the Statue of Liberty. It was a gift from the French to the American people and it’s a symbol of liberty all over the world. The statue stood in Paris before the present stand at Liberty Island was ready. President Cleveland revealed the statue at a ceremony at the 28th October in 1886. Emma Lazarus’ poem ‘The New Colossus’ is at the pedestal and the date of the Declaration of Independence is carved in the memorial slab. Bartoldi’s mother posed as a model for the statue. The 7 ‘rays’ on her crown symbolise the 7-world seas and the 7 continents. The original torch is replaced in 1986 because it was rusted. The flame is covered with 24-carat gold leaf. The statue weighs 225 tons and is cramped in it’s own pedestal together with the pillar. It’s 93 meters high from the ground to the torch. Even the forefinger is 1.5 meters long. You can also visit the Statue of Liberty inside; you’ll have a marvellous view from up there. We haven’t been into the statue ourselves, because there was a long queue, but we made some pictures of it, from a ship. But they’re not closely enough to see it very well. So, here is another picture.

The Empire Statebuilding Until 1973 the Empire State Building was the highest building in the world. The construction started at the 17th October in 1929, just before the Wall street-crash. The top of the building was reached in 1931(they built 4 floors a week). When the building was finished, there where so little renters (because of the crash which caused a downfall in the economy) that the building was mocked with and called ‘The Empty State Building’. Some facts

The whole building: -counts approximately 6.500 windows -contains 10 million bricks (the outside walls) -has got 102 floors -weighs 365.000 tons -the top is 443 meters high. The Empire State Building is a natural lightning conductor. It’s struck by lightning 500 times a year. The observation post is closed during a thunderstorm. About 35.000 people visit the observation post daily. The most of them don’t get further than the first stop. The elevators ‘fly’ 366 meters up in one minute. There’s been one accident, in 1945 when a plane flew over Manhattan. It crashed into the building, just above the 78th floor. Inside the building there are reliefs from Roy Sparkia and his wife, Renee Nemerov, these are works from 1963. One of them is pictured below.